See Also

Make a checklist to print

If you just need a checklist that you can print, you can make a list where each item has a check box that you can check off on paper. You can also create a list of check boxes and check off items electronically by opening the document in Word.

Note: If you can't check off an item electronically, it might be formatted for printing only or the document might be locked.

The way that you create the list depends on whether your document already contains bulleted lists with different kinds of bullets.

Although you are using the table to lay out the list, you probably want to adjust the spacing so that the column that contains the check boxes isn't too wide, and the text is lined up close to the check boxes. You probably don't want the border lines that Word usually includes with the table. To make these adjustments, do the following:

Right-click the table, point to AutoFit, and then click AutoFit to Contents.

Right-click the table, click Table Properties, and then click the Table tab.

Click Options, and in the Left and Right boxes, enter a number that will provide a little bit of space between the check box and the text, such as .02 inches, and then click OK.

On the Table tab, click Borders and Shading, and then click the Borders tab.

Under Setting, click None, and then click OK.

Note: After you remove the border lines, you may still see gray border lines. These are the table gridlines, and they do not show when the document is printed. If you don't want to see them at all, you can hide them by clicking View Gridlines in the Table group on the Layout tab under Table Tools.

Make a checklist that you can check off in Word

To use check boxes that you can check off in Word, you insert the check box form field into your document. This looks best if you use a table to align the check boxes with the text, so your first step is to create a table. After you create the table, you can insert the check boxes in one column and the text in the other column, and then you can refine the layout. To check off the items, you lock the form.

Although you're using the table to lay out the list, you probably want to adjust the spacing so that the column that contains the check boxes isn't too wide, and the text is lined up close to the check boxes. You probably don't want the border lines that Word usually includes with the table. To make these adjustments, do the following:

Right-click the table, point to AutoFit, and then click AutoFit to Contents.

Right-click the table, click Table Properties, and then click the Table tab.

Click Options, and in the Left and Right boxes, enter a number that will provide a little bit of space between the check box and the text, such as .02 inches, and then click OK.

On the Table tab, click Borders and Shading, and then click the Borders tab.

Under Setting, click None, and then click OK.

Note: After you remove the border lines, you may still see gray lines. These are the table gridlines, and they do not show when the document is printed. To hide the table gridlines on the screen, click the Layout tab under Table Tools, and in the Table group, click View Gridlines.

To check off the items by clicking in the check boxes, you need to lock the form. However, when the form is locked, you will not be able to make changes to the text or layout, so be sure to do this step last.

Note: If you want to check the spelling in your list, you must run spell check on the document before you lock the form.

When you want to edit the document, you can easily unlock the form. Just remember to lock it again so that you will be able to click the check boxes.

Lock the form

Make sure that you are not in design mode by clicking Design Mode in the Controls group on the Developer tab.

On the Developer tab, in the Protect group, click Protect Document, and then click Restrict Formatting and Editing.

In the Protect Document task pane, under Editing restrictions, select the Allow only this type of editing in the document check box.

In the list of editing restrictions, select Filling in forms.

Under Start enforcement, click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection.

To assign a password to the document so that only reviewers who know the password can remove the protection, type a password in the Enter new password (optional) box, and then confirm the password.

Important: If you choose not to use a password, all reviewers can change your editing restrictions.

Unlock the form

On the Developer tab, in the Protect group, click Protect Document, and then click Restrict Formatting and Editing.

In the Protect Document task pane, click Stop Protection.

Note: If you used a password to add protection to the document, you need to type the password before you can stop the protection.